Complimenting perfectly my taste of the bizarre and morbid, the essay(s) by Coral Lansbury explain, at length, the world in which The Island of Doctor Moreau was written. This was a world of paranoia of scientists and mad doctors, and in a way, mad doctors helped cement the moral values of the British public. The most focused upon aspect in the essay was the visual art story by William Hogarth entitled The Four Stages of Cruelty about Tom Nero, a horrible man who meets a horrible end, under the knife of the curious surgeons while (possibly) still alive. (Lansbury, 334) It is here that I believe the essay makes its point, and indeed, cements the relationship between religion and science. If you are a horrible human being, living a horrible life and inflicting all sorts of horrible things upon another, God will reward you with a date with a mad scientist. (335)

Much more than the other essay I read From “Deforming Island Races” (Brody, 341) this essay focuses on how yes, women are treated poorly by their monstrous counterparts, however, in every situation possible, these abusive husbands are faced with the result of their actions, and in some instances, women are able to find the courage and grace to stand up for themselves and not allow themselves to be the victims of such circumstance, (338) whereas Brody only emphasizes the situations that women are placed in.

Lansbury also made an excellent observation and relation to our own lives which I certainly did not when reading Moreau. She mentions the fact that Prendick gets used to the screams of the puma at night, it becomes a part of his life, and easily overlooked. It is only when this screaming becomes human that he is once again jostled by the sound, and intensely alarmed by it. (339) It is not that I did not read it; it is that I did not realize how wrong it is to get used to screams of pain of any living being. We too are getting used to his getting used to it and accept it. This essay shows us that The Island of Doctor Moreau is truly a horror novel, in that more than anything it shows us just how monstrous we can be and are.

Lansbury, Coral. "From “The Old Brown Dog”." Making Humans. Judith Wilt. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 2003. 333-341.

Brody, Jennifer DeVere. "From “Deforming Island Races”." Making Humans. Judith Wilt. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 2003. 341-352.

H.G., Wells. "The Island of Doctor Moreau." Making Humans. Ed. Judith Wilt. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 2003. 176-268.

Think on that for a while and maybe realize that given the transience of life, biology's awesome potential for instablility, and the possible meaningless of the entire universe, do you think it's worth the bother?